Inland Waterways as Modern Landscapes in Northeast Italy: Recovering a Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Governance

It’s well known the role of modern States in both managing river catchments and reclaiming wetlands, probably the most relevant issues in an effectual creation of “modernity”. The process of hydraulic modernization starts in North East Italy in the last decades of 19th century, following the annexation of the Veneto Region to the Italian Kingdom (1866). Subsequently, and sympathetic with the coeval nationalist discourses on skilful exploitation of natural/national resources, large schemes were set up, taking advantage of the advancements in water engineering. In this context inland navigation is another meaningful economic aspect that it’s worth to be considered, especially when in the very first years of 20th it was addressed as one of the pre-eminent issues of the Italian economic development. During the second world war the majority of Veneto and Friuli navigable rivers and canals was heavily damaged and the following economic recession did not allow its efficient maintenance. Therefore the decline of the water transport led to a functional decadence of some fluvial and canal landscapes. Only recently a more mature appreciation of the cultural heritage related to riverscapes developed. In this light the importance of waterways today shifts from mere engineering point of view to wider cultural and recreational goals to the extent that rivers and canals are showing their undeniable relevance in whatever intervention of environmental planning.